An individual walks previous a banner displaying North Korean and US flags (File | Reuters)
Seoul:
A US envoy arrived in South Korea on Tuesday in an effort to resume stalled nuclear talks with North Korea, hours after it issued a press release saying it has no intention of sitting down with the USA and informed South Korea to “cease meddling”.
US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, who has led working-level talks with the North Koreans, landed at a US army base south of Seoul, media reported, and was attributable to meet South Korean officers on Wednesday and Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kwon Jong Gun, director common for US affairs at North Korea’s overseas ministry, accused South Korea of misinterpreting a North Korean assertion dismissing an “premature hearsay” about one other summit between North Korean chief Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.
North Korea mentioned on Saturday it didn’t really feel the necessity for a brand new summit, days after South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who had provided to mediate between Kim and Trump, prompt the 2 leaders meet once more earlier than the US elections in November.
“It’s simply the time for (South Korea) to cease meddling in others’ affairs but it surely appears there isn’t any treatment or prescription for its unhealthy behavior,” Kwon mentioned in a press release carried by the North’s official KCNA information company.
“Explicitly talking as soon as once more, now we have no intention to sit down head to head with the USA.”
Trump and Kim met for the primary time in 2018 in Singapore, elevating hopes for a negotiated finish to North Korea’s nuclear programme. However their second summit, in 2019 in Vietnam, and subsequent working-level negotiations fell aside.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor on the College of North Korean Research in Seoul, mentioned Kwon’s assertion mirrored lingering inter-Korean stress and North Korea’s view that nuclear points must be mentioned solely with the USA.
“It additionally prompt that North Koreans would ditch the previous idea of negotiations the place the South performed a dealer position, and will not return to the desk with out main US concessions,” Yang mentioned.
Biegun mentioned final week there was time for either side to re-engage and “make substantial progress” however the novel coronavirus pandemic would make an in-person summit troublesome earlier than the US presidential elections on Nov. three.
The coronavirus sophisticated Biegun’s go to in a extra private approach as nicely.
A newspaper reported that due to the outbreak, the envoy wouldn’t be visiting a Korean hen soup restaurant that has been a daily cease on earlier visits, and as an alternative had organized for the dish to be ready on the US ambassador’s residence.
Final month, North Korea abruptly raised tensions with South Korea and blew up a joint liaison workplace, simply on its facet of the border, earlier than simply as abruptly suspending plans for unspecified army actions.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Further reporting by Josh Smith; Enhancing by Chris Reese, Howard Goller and Lincoln Feast)
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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